Wildlife Winners

Two well deserving artists just took home honors at the 28th annual Western Visions Annual Show & Sale in Jackson, Wyoming. Who were they?

For the entire month of September, the nation’s top wildlife artists, their collectors, and admirers all congregate in Jackson, Wyoming for the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions Show & Sale, a cornerstone event of the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival. Although the “Wild 100 Show & Sale” will take place tomorrow, September 18, the Trustee Purchase and Robert Kuhn Awards have already been decided, honoring two outstanding artists.

Artist Rox Corbett took home the coveted Trustee Purchase Award, a distinction that earned Corbett’s “Windfall” a spot in the museum’s acclaimed permanent collection. Previous winners include Britt Freda (2013), and Greg McHuron (2009), whom are chosen by the National Museum of Wildlife Art Trustees. Corbett’s beautiful charcoal drawing displays a triumphant grizzly bear presiding over his deceased elk. The stillness of the image contrasts sharply with the chaos that undoubtedly preceded it. Corbett’s attention to light, value, and texture is absolutely captivating and will surely bolster an already outstanding collection. Corbett’s subject was taken straight from the source, as the kill was captured on a trail camera on her Powell, Wyoming, ranch. The attitude of the bear was watchful and concerned, as theft of the meal from other bears and coyotes is common.

The Robert Kuhn Award, which honors the late artist Bob Kuhn, is given to the best submission in the category of artists’ sketches as determined by a panel of judges. This year’s winner was Kathy Wipfler’s “Bruin Trio,” executed in charcoal. Albeit small and scarcely populated, Wipfler has beautifully captured a wandering family of bears. Two cubs waltz in front and behind their protective mother. Rendered with only a handful of hatched and contour lines, Wipfler’s sketch is remarkably accurate and convincing. Wipfler’s sketches are gesture drawings she works from videos of animals. This method allows the artist to pause and study the anatomy and textures of her subjects.

To find out more about the various upcoming events in Jackson, click here.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

Andrew Webster is the Editor of Fine Art Today and works as an editorial and creative marketing assistant for Streamline Publishing. Andrew graduated from The University of North Carolina at Asheville with a B.A. in Art History and Ceramics. He then moved on to the University of Oregon, where he completed an M.A. in Art History. Studying under scholar Kathleen Nicholson, he completed a thesis project that investigated the peculiar practice of embedded self-portraiture within Christian imagery during the 15th and early 16th centuries in Italy.